Twitter Buys Mobile Ad Company MoPub for $300M

It is expected to launch an IPO early next year

On Monday, Twitter announced that it had purchased mobile ad solution developer MoPub for undisclosed terms. Sources told the New York Times that the social messaging company paid $300 million for MoPub.

Twitter generates about $583 million in annual advertising revenue, according to one market research firm. The company is attempting to boost its ad sales as it prepares for a widely anticipated initial public offering in 2014.

Adding MoPub will allow Twitter to leverage its automated platform for mobile app ad space bidding and placement. That would replace Twitter’s current system, which forces advertisers to do a significant amount of tinkering to get their ads in front of the right viewers.

The company plans to expand MoPub’s platform to reach more apps for mobile devices running Apple‘s (AAPL) iOS and Google‘s (GOOG) Android.